When They Cry Interlude The Journey Begins
by tsaieric
Summary: Continuation, One Shot . Everything has finally ended. The cycle is no more for Furude Rika. What is her new happiness like? However, is it really the end of the story? Spoiler from Higurashi no Naku Koroni Miotsukushi-hen and Umineko no Naku Koroni.


"Hmm…" Furude Rika groaned as she slowly opened her eyes

Disclaimer: The "When They Cry" series is owned 07th Expansion. The PS2 version, which contains _Miotsukushi-hen_ is owned Alchemist.

Spoiler Alert: This story contains spoiler to the _Miotsukushi-hen_ from the PS2 version. This story also contains spoiler to "When They Cry 3: Umineko no Naku Koroni".

Note: Italicized is part is Romanized Japanese, please see the bottom for their translation

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When They Cry

Interlude "The Journey Begins"

By Eric Tsai

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"Hmm…" Furude Rika groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. Recently, she had been able to sleep a lot better than before. Turning around she saw her same aged roommate still asleep.

"Mii…" Rika slowly rubbed her eyes as sat up.

It had been two years since everything ended. With members of Tokyo arrested, the project had finally ended.

According to what she had heard, everyone is living out their happy life. Tomitake and Takano are finally getting married. Irie still remained single as he continues to serve Hinamiza as the owner of its sole clinic. Oishi now lives in Hokaido and is living a colorful life with his pension. Akasaka had also been promoted to higher rank in the police force and his family is also doing fine.

More than that, it had been two year since the cycle ended. Now she had finally broke out of the cycle, no longer trapped by the fate of her own death.

Rika reminisced as she walked to sink so she could wash her face and brush her teeth.

With the freedom she now holds, she can live freely as she chooses to, but this freedom came with a price, the sacrifice of Hanyu's life.

Despite the constant disagreement they had with one another, Hanyu had been with Rika since the moment she was born. Furthermore, she had been with her for the past thousand years as she experienced the repeating cycles. She really wished that she could now be here with her as they experienced their finally victory over fate. But no, she was gone. She was gone with the cycle.

After cleaning herself up, Rika walked to small kitchen in the little house and prepared for breakfast. And as she prepared the meal, her melancholy disappeared as she remembered that she is not alone.

She turned around to see that the other roommate is still asleep. Rika let off a sigh as she quickly walked over to wake her roommate up.

"Satoko, _asa nanodesu_." Rika said as she gently shook her roommate.

"_Ohaiyo_" Satoko said as she sat up while she yawned.

Hojo Satoko had been her roommate ever since her brother, Satoshi was secretly hospitalized due to his Hinamizwa Syndrome becoming active. Even though now he is cured and released from Irie Shinjo and is now living at their old home, Satoko still often dropped by and slept over at Rika's home in the Furude Jinja.

"Breakfast will be ready in a couple minutes, so go and get yourself washed up." Rika said as Satoko nodded and slowly got up and walked to the restroom.

A couple minutes later, the two girls reconvened as Rika placed the breakfast onto the table.

"_Ittadakimasu._" Both said and then started enjoying their first meal of the day.

"Rika, _kyo wa mo Keichi no bento wa yoishiteru_?" Satoko asked as they ate their breakfast.

"Well, yeah." Rika shyly replied as she ate her bowl of rice.

After a few moments of silence, Satoko continued.

"I am really surprised though, that you and Keichi actually became a couple." Rika blushed as she shyly smiled. Seeing this Satoko decided to continue her pursuit on the two's relationship.

"I have always been interested in finding out how you two got started." Satoko said as she paused eating and put on an evil smile. "So spill it."

Rika didn't know what to say as how their relationship started was really complicated to explain.

To say how it began, was it that night under full moon when they stood on the steps to the shrine, sometime in the last round of the cycle, perhaps some time before in the other cycles before, or maybe it began a thousand years ago when they first met?

Still how did it begin? Why did she fall in love with him? Was it because he was the first to remember amongst her companions? Was it his brave actions during several of the worlds? Was it because he said that he would be her companion in this fight? Or was it because that he was liked shining knight in the armor with a noble and unyielding spirit?

Whenever and whatever it started, Rika knows one thing: she is in love with him and wants to be forever with him.

While Satoko pressed for answer, Rika looked at the clock in her room and realized one thing.

"Satoko, eat up, we are going to be late for school." Rika said as she returned to her food and began eating as quickly as her little mouth would allow her.

Hearing that Satoko stopped her questioning, and figuring that she would have to get the answers out of her another time.

Moments later…

On their way to school, the first ones they met are Satoshi and Shion.

"_Ohaiyo_,_nii-nii_." Satoko smiled as she greeted her brother.

"_Ohaiyo_, Satoko. How was last night?" Satoshi asked with a gentle smile and some worriyness as Shion walked beside him on the other side.

"Satoshi-kun, you got to let her be more independent, or else she is never going to grow up." Sonozaki Shion said to Satoshi as the four of them headed towards school.

Satoshi and Shion became a couple pretty much ever since he was released. Despite the bad history between the two families, now they are accepted and pretty much blessed by the entire village.

"Mion,_ mattei_." A short haired girl shouted as she followed behind another girl with long hair, who looked exactly like Shion.

The two girl stopped as they finally arrived at where the four stood and finally the girl with long hair spoke up.

"Mou, _Oji-san_ can't take anymore of this." The girl with the long hair said as she tried to calm her own breath.

"Mou, _Onee_, you got get yourself together, you are going to be graduating pretty soon, right?" Shion said as her sister dusted herself off.

Sonozaki Mion is same like always. Despite being exactly like her twin sister Shion appearance-wise, she is very different in terms of her personality. She is very easy-going, but also incautious of a lot of things, especially the smaller details.

Ryugo Rena, the girl with the short hair was quite obvious very different. Her personality is quite like a common girl, but no one would want to get her angry or to get her to engage in kaiiee mode unless they have to.

"Where is Keichi?" Rika asked as she noticed that one of her companions is missing.

"Keichi-kun should be right behind us…" Rena said as she turned back to look for her companion.

As soon as Rena said, a young man similar in age to Satoshi and Rena appeared in sight running towards them

"_Minna_, _Oori yo mattei shiteai yo_." The young man, although similar to Satoshi in certain areas but was more rugged in general, said as he stopped himself in front of the group.

"Mii, Keichi, _da jobu_?" Rika immediately asked worriedly as she patted the boy's head head lightly.

"_Dajobu_…." Before Keichi could finish, the chime sounded.

"Everyone run, class is about to start." Mion shouted as she began the dash.

Hearing that everyone made the move and Keichi and Rika stared at each other bewildered for a moment before realizing what is happening. And very soon, they began their run towards the schoolhouse.

As they ran, Rika realized one thing: Keichi was holding onto her hand and this caused her to blush. Noticing Rika's pace slowed down a little, Keichi looked back.

"Rika_ doshita_?" Keichi asked as he looked back.

"Nothing really." Rika replied as she gave a warm smile and seeing this, Keichi felt relieved as he returned his gaze forward.

"Now I am free." Rika thought as she ran. "I am free to be happy." Then her gaze felt onto the man who had saved, realizing that now she will be free to love and to stay with him forever. She will also be able to marry him and raise a family with him.

"Keichi, _ai shiteru_." Rika said quietly and happily as they ran together towards where happiness with everyone awaits them.

"So the other me has finally found happiness." A woman in a dark blue dress said as she watched the entire scene from a glass shard. Very soon, the scene faded into white and the woman held the glass shard into the palm of her hand.

The woman despite her youthful appearance has an aura of wisdom and maturity in her. But more strangely is that she looks exactly like the girl in the sharded image, who had achieved happiness, and with the exception that she had a cat's tail.

"I, Frederica Bernkastel, the witch of fragment and miracle, had finally won over Lamdadelta." The woman declared as she looked sadly at voidness around her.

"It's time for me to depart for the journey then." She said as she pondered for a moment.

"Well, let's see." The witch then looked around her. "Where shall I go?"

It was silent for a few moments before the witch spoke again.

"Golden Witch's place should be a nice place to go." The witch said as she started walking.

Then she turned her gaze to her hand as she revealed the glass shard still in her hand.

"_Matta ayshimasho. Umineko no Naku vashoae_." The woman then disappeared, leaving nothing but darkness behind….

The End

Completed: October 6, 2008

1st Edit: October 7, 2008

2nd Edit: October 9, 2008

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Thank you all for reading. This chapter is based on the true ending of Higurashi no Naku Koroni _Miotsukushi-hen__._ I really liked how it ended. This story also provides a transition, which I made up, for the new work done by 07th Expansion in the When They Cry series Umineko no Naku no Koroni, which many of you have not heard of. Anyway, questions and comments welcomed.

I will also post up the Frederica Bernkastel poem for _Miotsukushi-hen_, even though it is the same as _Matsuribayashi-hen_.

Translation note:

"Satoko, _asa nanodesu_." – "Satoko, it's morning already."

"_Ohaiyo_" – "Good morning."

"_Ittadakimasu._" - Well, it literally means starting, in case it means starting to eat

"Rika, _kyo wa mo Keichi no bento wa yoishiteru_?" – "Rika, are you preparing for Keichi's lunchbox today as well."

_Nii-Nii –_ It means big brother, it is how Satoko addresses Satoshi

"Mion,_ mattei_." – "Mion, wait for me."

_Oji-san_ – It refers to usually to a middle aged man, but here is how Mion addresses herself.

_Onee_ – It means big sister, it is how Shion addresses Mion

"_Minna_, _Oori yo mattei shiteai yo_." – "Everyone, wait for me."

"Mii, Keichi, _da jobu_?" – "Keichi, are you okay?"

"Rika_ doshita_?" – "What's wrong, Rika?"

"Keichi, _ai shiteru_." – "Keichi, I love you."

"_Matta ayshimasho. Umineko no Naku no vashoae_." – "See you again at where seagull cries."

Draft Two Note: Alright, I know I made a lot of mistakes. Thanks to eufinite and OasisNevaeh for reviews. It really helped out. So more reviews please. See you all somewhere else.

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最終章【澪尽し編】  
誰だって幸せになる権利がある。難しいのはその享受。

誰だって幸せになる権利がある。難しいのはその履行。

私だって幸せになる権利がある。難しいのはその妥協。

（祭囃し編と同じでした）

From: homepage2.

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_Miotsukushi-hen_

_Everyone has a right to pursue a happy life.  
The difficult part is to be given that right._

Everyone has a right to pursue a happy life.  
The difficult part is to fulfill that right.

I too have a right to pursue a happy life.  
The difficult part is to work out a compromise for that right.

-Frederica Bernkastel

Copied from Anime Suki Forum: forums.?t31811

Translated by kj1980.


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